For several weeks the world watched the rescue of twelve members of a soccer team and their coach who had been trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. None of the possible rescue scenarios was without danger, as the death of Thailand's former Navy Seal .Saman Kunan demonstrated when after delivering oxygen tanks to the cave, his own oxygen supply ran out. By the time this blog is posted, it is expected the thirteen who were rescued will have been released from the hospital although they and their families continue to need our prayers as they cope with memories and international fame. We should also pray for Kunan’s widow who told those rescued not to blame themselves for her husband’s death. In the days leading to the rescue, the boys had become everyone’s children. The lesson and the challenge is to remember that everyone we meet is someone’s child. As disciples of Christ, we are called to act in right relation to the world and to one another. While most of our decisions will not involve life or death situations, some complicated situations might freeze us in indecision. In those times, let us turn to our mother as Mary, Untier of Knots. Depicted in a painting by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner, Mary receives the knotted ribbon of human problems, unties it and passes it on to another angel. Mary will companion [...]

      Justice Anthony Kennedy’s decision to retire from the Supreme Court has caused great speculation and concern about future nominees and has aroused many memories of Kennedy’s position on the court as a Republican appointed by a Republican president who often was the swing vote, siding sometimes with the liberal judges, sometimes with the conservatives. In speeches and in writing formal opinions, Kennedy often expressed the need to begin with the Constitution, consider the context of American liberties and to consider human dignity. By nature, court cases involve a winner and a loser and people of good conscience can disagree over particular judicial points, but those disagreements should be based on careful consideration of facts and concern for the common good. Even before President Trump announced his nomination, pundits and politicians were devising strategies to block or approve the nominee for political advantage. Let us ask Mary, Seat of Wisdom, to pray that our leaders make judgments that serve and unite our country. And let us follow Mary’s wise example by being gentle and strong enough to listen for and respond to God’s will.

July 4th called us to remember once again the ideals affirmed in our country's founding documents. On Thursday, June 29th, five staff members of the Capital Gazette, a local newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, were murdered, apparently targeted by a gunman who in 2012 had made an unsuccessful attempt to sue the newspaper group for defamation. In a time when journalists are increasingly under verbal and sometimes physical attack, the tributes to the slain workers – four journalists and a sales associate – remind us of the true vocation of the news media to seek and publish the truth so that the rest of us might be informed and engaged citizens in the local, state, national and global communities in which we live. May our Blessed Mother give comfort to all who mourn and to all who have suffered violence. And may we all look to Mary as one who sought and followed the truth, for when the angel announced God’s plan, Mary’s first response was an open-minded and open-hearted question: “How can this be since I am a virgin?” Assured that the power of the Holy Spirit would accomplish God’s will, Mary said yes to God with her words and her life. May we follow Mary’s example in seeking truth and following the Spirit’s promptings.